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<p>I love this. </p>
<p>It always astonishes me when people immediately say a bright kid should go to CC the first time they hit a significant bump in the road, whether it be in HS or college. Maybe that’s because the CC here is NOT aimed at intellectuals, to say the least…</p>
<p>I think the recommendation of CC for a smart kid with low grades generally reflects the view that they lack maturity and need some additional time to grow up. Definitely the case for Steve Jobs.</p>
<p>Ms Mom – I cant tell if you are being sarcastic. Does anyone think Jobs, or the world, would have been better off if JObs had gone to a CC? I think the concern is do CCs turn kids into comforists at the cost of their indivuality?</p>
<p>Bookmarking this amusing discussion…</p>
<p>I knew far too many people whose HS GPAs were far below Steve Jobs’ level who ended up graduating from Ivy/elite universities…including Reed with honors-level undergrad GPAs to feel it is much of a shock. </p>
<p>Reed was not only well-known as a top school(In HS…it was SWAR)…their admissions was also pretty open-minded…even back in the early-mid '90s.</p>
<p>Only things which scared off applicants from applying, including myself, was the extreme work hard/play hard atmosphere and the intensely rigorous & heavy academic workloads. Many fears of being overwhelmed and cracking under the intense workload and academic pressure. </p>
<p>Then again, those factors was a reason why Reed admits/graduates were highly respected alongside kids who were admitted to schools like UChicago, CMU, Swarthmore, and MIT.</p>
<p>^^ yes, certain colleges were “known” for accepting brilliant kids with atypical high school records…Reed and Chicago were well known and there are others as pointed out. Nose to the grindstone kids have the capability to do great things…what chaffs the nose to the grindstone kids is that there are brilliant people that don’t tow the line yet go on to do brilliant things. And to a certain extent I agree CC is not geared toward those kids that don’t tow the line…those parents and kids simply aren’t interested in comparing GPAs, test scores, etc…that is not in their DNA.</p>
<p>^ Wise momofthreeboys.</p>
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Maybe times have changed. And I suppose it depends on your definition of “far too many” But when I look at the CDS for, say Princeton, it shows 99% in the top 10% and 100% in the top quarter of their graduating class. And I highly doubt the top 10% has GPAs below 2.</p>
<p>I find it exceedingly hard to believe there are or ever were lots of students in the Ivy League with GPAs under 2.65, without some sort of hook and “brilliance” probably isn’t the primary hook.</p>
<p>^ ^</p>
<p>Funny part is that Oberlin, my LAC was also known for accepting brilliant/intellectually curious kids with atypical high school records and was well-respected at my HS…but not on the level of Reed. </p>
<p>I was also admitted there with a HS GPA that’s the stuff of CC parent nightmares. Come to think of it…I wished my HS GPA was as good as Steve’s. :)</p>
<p>Also, the Reed admits and the C/D GPA high school classmates who transferred there from state tend to give smart aleck answers like “Oh, I’m going to California to be the best beach bum they’ve ever had” rather than their GPA/SATs/college acceptances.</p>
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<p>Actually, they were brilliant. However, their adolescent rebelliousness, unwillingness to toe the line, and the highly cutthroat competitive academic climate at my high school were factors in their less than impressive high school performances. </p>
<p>As for how they pulled it off…they first went to state/city colleges and excelled academically and EC wise there for the first year or two and wrote outstanding essays. Then, they applied and got into their elite/Ivy universities as transfers and continued to excel to graduation. </p>
<p>What’s more…nearly all of them were STEM majors…mostly engineering/CS with a pre-med or two thrown in.</p>
<p>“Does anyone think Jobs, or the world, would have been better off if JObs had gone to a CC?”</p>
<p>Actually, I don’t think it would have made one whit of difference if Jobs had spent a year CC or at Reed - it’s not the school that makes the person. He’d have still found a way to be the creative, visionary, brilliant - and immature - person that he appears to have been (based on the Isaacson biography.)</p>
<p>Back in my day, long before there was the internet, and where data was easily accessible and colleges were ranked with regularity, plenty of average students got into prestigious schools. They were often legacies. They were also generally able to pay for it.</p>
<p>My neighbor went to Reed (same class as Jobs) & assured us they had very generous financial aid. Otherwise it would not have been on the radar. D’s scores & Gpa was below their median, but she is a strong writer & had great opportunities in high school. She also is lopsidedly talented and was able to take advantage of the size of the school.
I wonder if they had the “scroungers” when Jobs was there?</p>
<p>Brilliant people rarely draw a straight line from A to B and drawing a straight line is so what high school is about. If you have the basic mental horsepower I’ve told my kids it’s “easy” to do well in high school especially these days with grade inflation. College should be about NOT drawing a line from A to B…at least that’s what I tell my kids LOL. Now if you’ve got a kid that’s pre-pro or on a technical/certificate track then it might be a different thing, but I prefer college to open the minds of my kids since they’ve been drawing a straight line from A to B for 13 years prior. What they do once there minds have been unlocked is up to them.</p>
<p>“I don’t think it would have made one whit of difference if Jobs had spent a year CC or at Reed”</p>
<p>As long as that CC had offered such a high quality calligraraphy class! ;)</p>
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<p>It might have made a difference to his son, named Reed, if Dad had gone to West Valley College instead. ;)</p>
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<p>Of course, Reed (and every other college) was probably a lot less expensive (after adjusting for inflation) back then (when “working one’s way through college” was more commonly doable). But wasn’t the story not that he or his parents could not afford it, but that he did not see it being a good value for the money?</p>
<p>But wasn’t the story not that he or his parents could not afford it, but that he did not see it being a good value for the money?</p>
<p>His parents were blue collar & it was a stretch for them to afford it ( as it was for us even with aid, but then so would the state U) But as he complained to Wozniak, " they expected him to take a range of courses, not just the ones he was interested in!" " Um, yeah" Woz replied, “that’s what college * is*.” :rolleyes: paraphrased.</p>
<p>Reed was included in Loren Pope’s Colleges that Change Lives for a reason way back when. Pope’s CTL schools were supposed to be A+ schools for B students (and apparently B- as well). If Pope were still alive and was writing his book today Reed wouldn’t qualify.</p>
<p>This is true- even when my daughter applied in 2001, the admission rate was more than double what it is today. </p>
<p>But there is another college book written by a Reed alum, which highlights “quirky” schools.
[Cool</a> Colleges for the Hyper-Intelligent, Self-Directed, Late Blooming, and Just Plain Different.](<a href=“http://www.donaldasher.com/ccl.php]Cool”>http://www.donaldasher.com/ccl.php)
think different ;)</p>
<p>^^
Okay. That makes sense (last two posts).</p>